Ghana Cocoa Board says it will soon announce a new cocoa producer price to commence the 2009/2010 produce buying season. The board was reacting to concerns that a delay in the announcement of the new producer price is encouraging smuggling across the border into Cote d’Ivoire, another cocoa producing country where the new buying season has commenced. The deputy public affairs officer at COCOBOD, Mr Kwesi Kwakye, tells Joy Business a series of meetings to agree on the new price have already been held, adding that the new price should be out before the end of the week. The producer price, which is what farmers in the country are paid for their produce is set at the beginning of each buying season. At Yaw Matwa, one of the border towns in the Western Region, smugglers are said to be paying as much as GHc170 per bag of cocoa; GHc50, more than the old producer price. Source: Joy Business/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana